Melbourne MP3 Of The Week: Oblako Lodka

Autumn’s in. Wistful feelings. Forecasts stuck way down in the teens. You have to wear socks to sleep. And in the news old heaters are killing people. Meanwhile Oblako Lodka have released their own silent killer, a self-titled debut LP.

After playing around Melbourne since 2007, the four-piece finally got around to releasing their album a couple weeks ago on vinyl and digital download. And with the seasonal change affecting a nostalgic, meditative mood in the air, the release couldn’t have been more perfectly timed.

Left To Fight sums up the best parts of the album. Doleful and resigned, rich with vocal harmonies and musak organs, the track is an uptempo downbeat wonder. A coppery guitar plucks backbeat minor chords against a bright vocal punctuated by short bursts of harmonic chanting, xylophones sadly descending in-between and later, a casio french horn plodding through melancholic counter-melodies. It’s obvious that mixed feelings weigh heavily on this band.

Left To Fight has the album’s most crystallised and catchy sadness caught in a short (just over two minutes) but well rounded single. There may not really be any chorus to sing along to, but who needs one?

I say, download this mp3. You may as well have something to listen to when you’re watching leaves drop.

Download: http://specialawardrecords.bandcamp.com/track/left-to-fight
Vinyl available from most indie record stores and through http://specialawardrecords.tumblr.com